Raphael paints wisdom, Handel sings it, Phidias carves it, Shakespeare writes it, Wren builds it, Columbus sails it, Luther preaches it, Washington arms it, Watt mechanizes it.
Interpretation
The quote highlights how various disciplines express and embody wisdom through different forms of art and action.
Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote illustrates the multifaceted nature of wisdom as it is represented across different fields and professions. He suggests that wisdom transcends mere knowledge; it is an integral part of creation, whether through artistic expression, leadership, exploration, or innovation. Thus, it emphasizes that wisdom can be seen in a wide array of human endeavors, each contributing uniquely to our understanding and appreciation of life.
In practice
In a speech about creativity, one might quote Emerson to emphasize the importance of wisdom in artistic endeavors.
It is plain that there is no separate essence called courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in the heart containing drops or atoms that make or give this virtue; but it is the right or healthy state of every man, when he is free to do that which is constitutional to him to do.
Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.
Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations
Tis the good reader that makes the good book; a good head cannot read amiss: in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakeably meant for his ear.
The world belongs to the energetic.
Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?
In forming a judgment, lay your hearts void of foretaken opinions; else, whatsoever is done or said, will be measured by a wrong rule; like them who have jaundice, to whom everything appears yellow.
He pleaded so much that he lost his voice. His bones began to fill with words.
You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.
'Always speak the truth - think before you speak - and write it down afterwards.'_x000D_ _x000D_ 'I'm sure I didn't mean - ' Alice was beginning, but the Red Queen interrupted her impatiently._x000D_ _x000D_ 'That's just what I complain of! You should have meant! What do you suppose is the use of child without any meaning? Even a joke should have some meaning - and a child's more important than a joke, I hope.
The search for truth is a cooperative, unending endeavor. We can, and should, engage in it to the extent we can and encourage others to do so as well, seeking to free ourselves from constraints imposed by coercive institutions, dogma, irrationality, excessive conformity and lack of initiative and imagination, and numerous other obstacles.
EPIGRAM, n. A short, sharp saying in prose or verse, frequently characterize by acidity or acerbity and sometimes by wisdom.
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